Officers should be reminded that it is not an offence for a member of the public or journalist to take photographs of a public building and use of cameras by the public does not ordinarily permit use of stop and search powers.

Subsequent reports in The Guardian document incidents later in the same week in which a photographer was harrassed while photographing an historic church, and a journalist accused of ‘hostile reconnaissance’ while snapping shots of the Gherkin.

This craziness depresses me, as does the tendency to advocate capitulation in order to avoid being further harassed or even arrested. I think – I hope – the answer lies in action such as the mass gathering being organised by I’m a photographer, not a terrorist